Plagiarism
Mary Abu-farha
Wayne State University

Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be defined in many ways, but essentially all the different definitions of plagiarism link back to the same meaning. According to dictionary.com, plagiarism is the act of taking another person’s writing or ideas and claiming it to be of your own work (plagiarism, Dictionary.com). However, this is just a broad definition of plagiarism while there are many forms of plagiarism that should be understood in order to comprehend all the aspects of plagiarism. One form is called the “Ghost Writer”, which is described when a writer turn’s in another person’s work word-for-word as his or her own. Another form is known as the “Potluck Paper” where the writer tries to disguise plagiarism by copying several different sources, changing the sentences to make them fit together, while retaining most of the original information. And lastly, the rarely known form of plagiarism is when the writer uses previously written work of his or her own and submits it to receive credit; Although not using someone else’s work, this is still a form of plagiarism because it is unfair to the person’s fellow classmates (plagiarism, Plagiarism.org).
You should not plagiarize because it is simply unfair. It is not fair to the person whose work is being used and not accredited for. It is also unfair to the classmates of the plagiarizer, because while they are working hard to obtain good grades the plagiarizer is not. Lastly, you should not plagiarize because there are serious consequences for plagiarizing such as getting expelled from the institution at which you are enrolled in and this will be placed in your student record.
Plagiarism can be avoided in many ways. One way to avoid plagiarism is to take notes on sources that you are interested in using, instead of taking specific phrases. This way when you use your notes, you are most likely going to rephrase them in your own words. A second way to avoid plagiarism is to put the authors words that you are using in quotations. For instance, if you really like a catchy phrase that you have read, you